MSI's "custom" take on AMD's RX Vega graphics card has made an appearance in front of the camera. Dubbed Air Boost edition, this is really a glorified, MSI-branded reference edition Vega, with the same blower-type cooler that AMD seems to have used since forever. It keeps to MSI's Gaming X color scheme (and AMD's own at that) with black and red colors, and breathes custom innovation in the increased breathing space on the I/O port's second slot, since all 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI connectors have been moved to the first slot. As recent reports peg AMD's AIB's custom cards as coming only towards the second half of October, it seems that for now, this is the most "custom" edition of a Vega graphics card we're going to get.

Actually these reference coolers are not to bad as the past have shown us. A quick undervolt and slight fan curve setting and increase in clocks if wanted and well... tbh they're actually pretty quiet when gaming.

fullinfusion said:Actually these reference coolers are not to bad as the past have shown us. A quick undervolt and slight fan curve setting and increase in clocks if wanted and well... tbh they're actually pretty quiet when gaming.

...and at full tilt, it might be loud but, it removes heat very well since it's going straight out the back of the case. I personally think that blower designs remove heat best but, tend to have the worst reputation when it comes to sound.

fullinfusion said:Actually these reference coolers are not to bad as the past have shown us. A quick undervolt and slight fan curve setting and increase in clocks if wanted and well... tbh they're actually pretty quiet when gaming.

After two blower-type GTX 660's in SLI, I beg to differ. This is going to sound like jumbo jets taking off on Vega.

Bottom line: blowers NEVER again. They just can't compare, even the movement of all the air getting pushed out the back, IF you're lucky and don't have a super noisy radial fan anyway, is just too much to handle.

BTW this MSI design is another bit of proof that nobody wants to sell Vega at all. 'Look more gaps'... in a weird place. Shroud is probably one of the most boring ones of 2017. It looks tacky as hell

LocutusH said:I guess someone had to do this also. A proper blower card, since AMD even failed with that on their own...

Except from the pictures it looks like exactly the same blower that AMD already has on Vega, but now with MSI stickers and a dremmel'd I/O. Also I love the double standard, nVidia's reference blower lets the 1080 get up to 83C before throttling and fan speed increases, Vega 64s cooler does the same, but somehow AMD failed in their design and nVidia didn't...